Author(s): Almeida, Henrique de Amorim ; Teixeira Ascenso, Rita Margarida ; Oliveira, Eunice
Date: 2018
Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.8/14350
Origin: IC-online
Subject(s): Feminist Anthropology; Maternal and Child Health; Physical-Biological Anthropology; Obstetrics; Medical Anthropology; Midwifery
Pregnancy is a women life event that impacts her own and offspring’s life; surprisingly, few systematic and scientific maternal information is available in the literature for anthropometric and ergonomic purposes. Regarding ergonomics, some authors state that guidelines should be design for pregnant women. These guidelines may consider anthropometric issues such as changes in weight and distribution of mass, which influence mobility, home and labour performance, mood and cognition. Anthropometrics allows the body measurement, but in pregnancy women are sparingly characterized, besides Body Mass Index and few other parameters. Ergonomics not only aids in the design process of work or home layouts, but also contains several evaluation tools to determine the level of risk of musculoskeletal disorders of daily or labour tasks. Some of these tools are very specific and others have certain conditions that should be met before using them. The purpose of this study is to present an overview of guidelines and discuss which anthropometric and ergonomic evaluation tools may be used, and under which conditions can be implemented in pregnant women.
